Insights from the World of Real Estate Development, Construction Cost Management, and Cat Herding

Repositioning a Regional Shopping Center

by Andy Burns on March 19, 2010

I’m happy to say that we just got a new project to manage all the design, permitting, and construction processes to reposition a 20+ year old, 460,000 SF, 50 acre, regional shopping center in the US Midwest.It’s good to see projects picking up again, as 2009 had to be one of the toughestyears we have seen ever in commercialreal estate.

Part of this project will involve the demolition and replacement of some 170,000 SF of outmoded and poorly accessible space with a new big-box anchor store along with new shops and restaurants, newly arranged access and parking, and new site amenities.This is no small feat.One of the biggest challenges we see with projects like this is being lucky enough to have a client with BOTH a vision for the future and enough money to bet on it - in this seriously hobbled economic climate.

In addition to handling all the cost estimating and establishing and managing all project budgets, we are sourcing and managing all the main contracts for civil engineering, survey, environmental, traffic, geo-tech, building architecture and landscape architecture. We’re also handling the competitive bidding processes; construction contract negotiations; and all on-site management and coordination of the general contractors – including the submittal, RFI, Change Order, and close-out processes.

That’s why this blog references herding cats. It’s kind of like that at times. There are so many moving parts; it only takes one screw up, or even worse, an overlooked item, to get things off track. The construction process pitfalls Owner’s face are plentiful and scary: from bad designs – to poor submittal and RFI procedures, unauthorized/undeserved change orders, schedule and quality problems – scary indeed!

Anyone who has worked with us knows that we are not the ordinary OPM or Owner’s Project Manager – we are not a glorified “bank monitoring” firm – we don’t just monitor – we roll up our sleeves and MANAGE our projects for success.

Having good relationships helps, but that doesn’t preclude a contractor somewhere somehow who will try to make things go his way. Good thing that we’re known for our hands-on approach, no one gets a free pass when working with us.

Will keep you posted on our progress. And maybe you’ll be hearing from me.

Andy,
Go to see that your wit has not deteriorated in this economy. I’m always interested to know what you up to. If you would like us to bid,/submit pricing on the project, please let me know. (Pepper CATstruction)

Fact is I like to view the Green initiative as I do carbon credits and Mr Gores Global warming cow pucky, yes it is responsible to want to be more friendly to the environment and yes it is more responsible to save energy, however it is also irresponsible to create a false economy with the Cap and trade carbon crap and false information about the cost to real benefit of green producing products and schemes, I have been involved with high end CM/Cx and Design and the real benefit is “Feel Good” about it …at a healthy price for very little return, I would like for the real truth to be told to the tree hugger and greenee’s and to the energy dept that so far has tossed away 4 trillion bucks over the last 35 years, lets be at least honest about the real truth. KT

You have a point: buildings could do so much more. But how do we get there? The only way is to radically change the thinking about buildings. What if they went from energy consumers to energy creators? Frank Lloyd Wright criticized architects for putting the same façade on all 4 sides of a building. He didn’t understand how the building’s north side should be the same design as its south side. Of course, he had a pretty high opinion of nature.

But why would we, as a society make that kind of change as long as energy is relatively cheap, and there is no economic incentive to reduce pollution? What kind of vision is necessary to make that happen? Or do we just wait until the oil’s gone and panic then? Maybe cap and trade isn’t the right idea. But, it seems to me it’s a good start and could be ended if it didn’t do what we want it to. It’s a way to create an economic incentive that must be there for innovation to have a chance.

I am just writing to let you be aware of of the wonderful discovery my cousin’s daughter encountered visiting your site. She mastered many issues, most notably how it is like to possess an amazing helping style to have men and women effortlessly have an understanding of certain problematic things. You truly did more than our desires. Thank you for presenting the interesting, trustworthy, explanatory and even unique tips about the topic to Evelyn.